When Jing Yi returned to the house, he was greeted by a bouquet of flowers. He blinked his eyes and then looked up into Qiu Ling’s smiling face. "This …"

"They’re for you!" Qiu Ling happily grabbed his beloved’s hands and stuffed the flowers inside. Thanks to his beloved still being mortal, he had had enough time to go and pluck a few for him. He should be very surprised now, shouldn’t he?

"Thanks?" Jing Yi looked at the flowers and indeed couldn’t help but smile. "You had to wait for a long time, didn’t you? I’m sorry. I should have hurried up."

Qiu Ling beamed at him in response and took his arm, pulling him further inside. "It’s not a problem at all. I just went to train a bit. After all, I have to make sure I don’t get rusty. What if some rogue tries to take advantage of you while we’re out traveling? I need to be able to beat them all back!"

Jing Yi laughed. "I see. So that’s your goal for becoming a practitioner."

"Mn. I want you to always be happy." He pulled his beloved into his arms and wondered if he should use the opportunity to steal a kiss. Right now, the atmosphere was very good so maybe his beloved would allow him?

He pondered but finally decided against it. Jing He had always been rather shy and intent on following the constraints of what was acceptable among the gods. Even though Qiu Ling felt that this was a pity there was also something good about it. When they did indeed kiss in the end, it would mean that his beloved was completely his and nothing could change about that anymore.

Qiu Ling very conveniently forgot about the fact that he had previously taken advantage of a situation here and there already. Well, even with Jing He, he had not always abode by what the gods deemed to be proper. He just did what he wanted and only occasionally remembered to consider the other side.

Anyway, currently, it was also in his interest to take care of matters first. "So … did you and your grandfather make up?"

"Mn." Jing Yi nodded, not even thinking of escaping from Qiu Ling’s arms now that the subject was brought up. "You were right. I was thinking too much. He wasn’t angry at me and just wanted to help. Actually, he seemed very worried about me."

"Well, he is part of your family, isn’t he?"

"That’s true. Speaking of which … He also happens to be a Daoist Master so after we cleared everything up and caught up a bit, I asked him about cultivation. He couldn’t tell me everything because he …" Jing Yi furrowed his brow, wondering how he should say it. "Well, he’s cultivating in a slightly different way but he said that I should try to go to a place that is rich in the spiritual energy of the element that corresponds to my spirit veins." He stopped himself and bit his lower lip. Right, Qiu Ling wasn’t a cultivator. He might not understand that. "I’m sorry. I know it’s hard to understand if you don’t have spirit veins at all. Should I explain?"

"No, I …" Qiu Ling pondered. Now that his beloved brought it up, even if there was 'grandfather' to ask, they couldn’t ask him every time, could they? Especially since he couldn’t let him appear while he was around. And sooner or later, his beloved would catch onto the fact that he never saw the two of them appear at the same time. That would be a disaster!

Qiu Ling’s mind churned. He had to get around this. The easiest way would be to let grandfather appear less and less but then he needed another way to teach his beloved what he needed to know to cultivate and ascend as fast as possible. The best way to do that would be to just do it himself but he could hardly just start to suddenly show his magic after always appearing as a practitioner, could he?

Eh?

Qiu Ling blinked his eyes and tilted his head. Come to think of it … Hadn’t he shown his magic inside the human realm already? Right in front of his beloved? After all, back when he had spent the night drunk at Jing Yi’s place, he had used his magic to close the door. And then, he had also used his magic to call that cloud down that they had used to get from the Yun Zou Sect to the capital.

Now that he thought about it, shouldn’t his beloved know already that he knew how to use magic? Why was he being so apprehensive then? He could just … tweak the story a little.

Qiu Ling looked at Jing Yi appraisingly but his beloved’s gaze only showed doubt about his current lack of response and strange expression.

Ah, so he really hasn’t noticed. Qiu Ling didn’t know if he should be happy or sad about this. Shouldn’t his beloved notice something this important about him? Well, regardless, this might also be in his favor. Now, he might be able to use this to spin a story around it.

Jing Yi was currently raising his brows. "Qiu Ling? Are you … alright?"

Qiu Ling pulled himself out of his thoughts and put on a grave expression. "Actually …"

"Yes?"

"Actually, there’s something I feel I need to say."

Jing Yi looked at him expectantly. With that kind of introduction, it should be something very important? Just when he thought so, his brows involuntarily twitched. Well … since this was Qiu Ling, he shouldn’t be too sure about it. It could also be another sappy love confession.

Thankfully, Qiu Ling had no idea what his beloved was thinking so he used the same grave expression to make his confession. "You know how you saw me for the first time at the Gathering of Practitioners, right?"

"Of course." Jing Yi furrowed his brows and nodded, now even more certain that this wouldn’t end in anything serious.

"Well, I felt that you were very impressed with my sword skills so I didn’t want to disappoint you in the time after that and … didn’t tell you the whole truth." He tried to look uncomfortable and shifted on the spot. "Actually, I’m not just a practitioner. I’m actually a … dual cultivator."

"Ah?" Jing Yi’s expression collapsed. This … this was indeed a serious matter. "But why … why didn’t you tell me? Didn’t you say to my uncle that there were only a few of those and that it was especially awesome? I would have expected you to make use of that situation to show off."

Qiu Ling stared at him with his mouth gaping open. Unexpectedly … unexpectedly, his beloved thought he was a show-off!